My 17 year old cousin's 95 F150 lost a head gasket, truck is around 100,000 miles. It was his grandfather's truck for many years. I found a low mileage 94 van engine for 250$ (my buddy's junkyard) But his Dad decided to buy a reman engine as there are no local engine rebuilders and cost wise a parts store engine is way cheaper aswell. What is the best brand or other options to buy a plan 5.0 mass air truck engine? We have Autozone, Advance, and Oreillys. I worked at Oreillys after I retired, so I have personal experience with those and wouldn't use them, but what is everyone's opinion and options?

 

I'm pretty sure that most of the FLAPS remans come from ATK. And for the most part, unless I had no other choice, I'd stay away. You *might* get a decent rebuild, you might not. Honestly, same goes for Jasper, if you're able to buy direct from them.

https://www.sandjengines.com/ I've used before, and not had issues with, but that was close to a decade ago.

 

I don't have any advice about parts store engines... but why not just replace the head gasket? It's less trouble than an engine swap.

 

Thers is nothing mass air about these engines, the exact same 5.0 motor was used from '94 to '96 in both SD and MAF trucks as well as with both OBD1 and OBD2 efi systems.
That van engine is a direct replacement minus any wiring that comes with it, and I'd rather have an all original low milage Ford motor than an unknown reman with who knows what junk parts indside

 

If it was mine.....I would just rebuild it. That way you know what you got and what to expect from it......

 

The problem where we live is really no one close has any sort of a machine shop that one could use. I would use the van engine and then source an engine rebuilder or jus piddle with it myself, if it were mine. The remans all are less than appealing to me, but this truck is jus transportation to school, ball practice, weight lifting and other teenage activities. My cousin really isn't a gearhead, jus drives and maintains his truck. Pretty sure his grandfathe let it get hot and after he started driving it, the truck which probably still had the original antifreeze all its life till my cousin got it a couple years ago. Replacing a head or both heads may be the way to go, but right now getting it back driving is paramount.

 

What Hotrod said, I am hopefully at the end of a overly long journey of swaping out my 5.0 for a 5.8. Ended up having to do a MAF upgrade, a bit of rewiring, and buying a compatible EEC and moates quarterhorse and BE,
Looking back, Rebuilding the 5.0 back to stock would have been a ton easier and cheaper.

No, I would never say that in front of my wife or friends.

 

if the van engine runs and passes compression and no smoke test, i would just drop it in and call it fixed.

 

For what its worth, I would absolutely have no issue with a junkyard engine if:
1. I was able to inspect the vehicle the engine came out of prior to purchase. Keep in mind, a crashed vehicle theoretically ran "fine" until it was crashed. Best case is it was rear ended, but a front collision could be OK as well. A non-crashed vehicle with undetermined failure mode would warrant a closer look to understand what happened. If it was a trans issue, why wasnt it maintained? A lot can be gleaned from looking at the vehicle itself. Did it look maintained? New parts anywhere? I have used a bunch of junkyard engines successfully. Just know what you are looking at. What are the common failure modes and can it be checked prior to purchase? (i.e. compression check).
2. This is a bonus but it would be great if it had a warranty you are able to take advantage of should anything go wrong. Seeing as how its your buddy, I imagine he would do his best to help you out if someone is wrong with it.

I purchased a marine 454 from S and J engines and would absolutely recommend them. The price was fair, their warranty is fantastic, and the quality of build can be seen straight out of the box.

 

Just do the head gaskets man.
That's the cheapest option and least amount of time honestly.
Thats relatively low mileage. The only ****ery you will end up running into is pulling the lower intake off and what condition it may be in after that IF you get all the bolts out without snapping one. Lots of torch heat on the back and front corner ones where they thread into the block and you should be okay (common coolant leak at the port terminals here and it gets into the bolts/threads on the corners)
Hell if you really want it done fast and dirty just do the one blown head and leave the other.
Junkyard engines....that's a lot of work to swap a complete engine. And in the end you may get a piece of **** thats pissing coolant out of every hole and may have a blown head gasket all the same or worse and you're back to square one.
For what you're using the truck for, buy the upper gasket set and just pay a shop to do it if you don't have the skills and time. It will be cheaper and in the end you will have a much stronger engine with low miles compared to rolling the dice on junkyard ones.
Likewise with a rebuilt engine. Unknown components, unknown quality of labor, unknown tolerance checks, pricey with all that in mind and you still have to pull and install an engine....I doubt getting both heads done at a shop would be more expensive than a crate engine plus you still have to pull the entire thing out and install it.
My perspective anyhow from someone that has torn down and rebuilt from the reconditioned block a couple 302s now.